Couple turns small cottage into their ‘little piece of heaven’

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The Lawson home is the house in the valley that grew and grew! What started out, as a two-bedroom cottage is now a 6500-square-foot rancher with every imaginable feature. Ken Lawson explained how he and his family ended up in such a spacious home.

Forty years ago, he was looking for a place that would help him expand his welding and alloys business. He needed a bigger warehouse and his wife, Pat, heard about a place in Scottown, Ohio that just might fit the bill.

“I kept telling him about this place and that he needed to go look at it and when he finally did he bought it.” Pat said.

“I looked at the warehouse on the property first and knew it would workout and never even looked at the house. The former owner and I worked out a price and that was it,” Ken said.

As it turned out, the unintentional house has become their dream home. Over time the couple expanded the abode by adding an oversized master suite, a unique kitchen, dining room, breakfast room, a sun porch and that was just upstairs.

When the upstairs expanded so did the downstairs allowing the family to enjoy a family room, a billiard room, an exercise room, a sauna/steam room and a tanning room.

“We built lots of storage in every room,” Ken said. The kitchen alone has two large pantries for storage.

Ken described how the workout area came into being. “We moved the Jacuzzi from the master bath to an adjacent room I built for it. As we did that, I had about decided I was tired of driving over to Huntington to go to the YMCA and wanted a workout area at home. I thought about it and figured if we dug out the area under the master suite we could have a workout area.”

Pat just laughed and said, “He always likes a project but that was a mess. Those workers would come every morning and hang a plastic curtain in our bedroom so they wouldn’t drag that dirt into it as they dug out that basement area.”

The outside areas expanded as well. The warehouse was renovated plus a barn, swimming pool and tennis court were added to the growing home place. All of it is lovely and readily viewed from the many picture windows inside the house, but it is Mrs. Lawson’s flowers that really add panache to the estate. Inside and out, they are her love and it shows.

Wafting in the wind all around the house are beds of lavender spider plants (cleones). Peppered throughout the easily spreading plant are lilies of all manner and color plus roses, daisies, minardas, coneflowers and more.

“I love the patio area behind the house, it is my favorite place with all the flowers and birdhouses,” Pat said. From her patio her flowers flow toward the pool area where a pergola offers shade and color with climbing grape vines.

Ken agrees the outdoors offers a restful place to watch nature and the wildlife.

“We have turkey and deer plus our own animals who have the run of the place,” he said.

Their own animals include a cat, two horses and two dogs who tend to follow him around as he goes about the grounds.

Pat added, “Don’t forget our son’s dog and another employee who brings his dog to work with him. Total we have four dogs here every day.”

The joy of any home expansion is the result of your labors and the pride the Lawsons feel in their accomplishment is well deserved. They have created their little piece of heaven on the 65 acres Ken bought so many years ago.